Chapter 32 Memories of Comrade Ma Mingfang

Comrade Ma Mingfang is one of the leaders of the revolutionary base in northern Shaanxi.He joined the Communist Party of China in 1925 and made great contributions to the party and the people, leaving an unforgettable impression on me. I knew Comrade Ma Mingfang in September 1934, when the Northern Shaanxi Special Committee held a mass meeting to commemorate the "September 18th" in Huchangping Village, Central District, Qingjian County. Red Guards and guerrillas in Suide, Qingjian, Wubao, Yanchuan, Jiaxian and other counties.The content of this meeting is to carry out publicity and education on "resisting Japan and saving the country" to everyone, and mobilizing the masses to resolutely resist the aggression of the Japanese invaders.Comrades Guo Hongtao, Ma Mingfang and the leaders of the army attended the meeting.Leading comrades delivered lively speeches at the meeting.This is the first time I have met him and listened to his teachings.

In the afternoon after the meeting, they moved to another village.Our first batch of nine women cadres in northern Shaanxi, the nine sisters from Gaojie Village, followed the comrades of the Special Committee and walked dozens of miles to Zaopingta Village.The next day, in order to improve the political level of our women cadres, the special committee held a "training class" in the area.The first person to give us a lecture in the training class was Comrade Mingfang. He spoke in simple terms, vivid and easy to understand.From the very beginning, we praised the nine sisters in Gaojie Village who participated in the revolution, saying: "These nine women are the first batch of female worker and peasant cadres who participated in the land revolution in the Soviet area in northern Shaanxi. They are good!" encouragement.At the same time, at the meeting, he talked about the Kuomintang's barbaric acts of encircling and suppressing the Soviet area, killing ordinary people, and the revolutionary situation, and mobilized everyone to unite to defeat the enemy, implement the policy of strengthening the wall and clearing the wilderness, and so on.After mobilization and education, we have been encouraged to beat the enemy hard and have firm confidence in victory.He also said: "Women are oppressed by the 'Three Obediences and Four Virtues', which is more oppressed than men. How can we seek liberation? It is not enough to rely on a few of you women to come out to revolution, but to promote and mobilize women to participate in the revolution!" He also taught us to Establish a variety of organizations that are good at giving full play to women's abilities, so that everyone can make achievements in practical work and consciously seek liberation.Comrade Mingfang taught us this lesson, which brightened everyone's minds and pointed out the direction for later practical work.

After the training class, we followed Comrade Mingfang's instructions and went to various villages to mobilize women.At that time, the Red Twenty-Sixth Army and the guerrillas won a battle in Hekou, but there were also many wounded who needed care in the homes of the masses. We went to various villages to hold women's meetings to publicize the principles of revolution to them, and organized women's associations to inspire them. Consciously participated in the revolutionary work, established nursing, sewing and laundry teams in each village.Men carry stretchers, deliver letters and watch sentries, while women make military shoes and socks and take care of the sick and wounded.After a period of work, the women's movement in northern Shaanxi started vigorously.Many women cadres were promoted among women activists.From the winter of 1934 to the Spring Festival of 1935, twenty or thirty women participated in the Battle of Kawaguchi.By the autumn of that year, there were more than 100 women cadres in Qingjian County.Before the arrival of the Central Red Army, the number of women cadres in the entire northern Shaanxi Province had grown to several hundred.Later, these women cadres were assigned to work in hospitals, supply departments, military depots, and factories, where they played a very good role.

The second time I met Comrade Mingfang was in January 1937.This was after the "Xi'an Incident". In order to meet the needs of the situation, the army, local government, provincial party committee, and mass organizations had to work separately.At that time, the central government moved from the old Soviet area to Yan'an, and the provincial government in northern Shaanxi moved to Panlong Town.On the second day after arriving in Panlong Town, the full committee of the Provincial Party Committee was held to arrange how to carry out the work.Comrade Mingfang is the secretary of the Northern Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee, and I am a member of the Provincial Party Committee and Minister of Women, working under his direct leadership.At this time, the Provincial Party Committee was stationed in Yaoping Village, south of Panlong Town.There is only one big courtyard here, and there are only a dozen or so cave dwellings, so it is inconvenient for many organs to be crowded together.Comrade Mingfang used to live with his family members. Because of housing difficulties, he sent his wife and children to his parents' house more than ten miles away.Due to the difficult life, two meals a day are millet rice and salted potatoes.Comrade Mingfang worked while sick and often had stomach pains.Comrade Cui Shuguang, the Secretary-General, asked him to move his family members in two rooms to take care of them, but he firmly disagreed and decided to reserve these two rooms for the government to entertain the family members of cadres.Comrade Mingfang has always been lenient with others and strict with himself in life.

Comrade Mingfang paid special attention to the training and education of cadres.When he was secretary of the Northern Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee, he believed that improving the level and ability of cadres was the prerequisite for ensuring the victory of the revolution.Therefore, he was the first to propose the establishment of a provincial party school to train party members and cadres in rotation.The rotation training emphasizes that there must be a certain proportion of youth and women cadres in each period.At that time, I was the Minister of Women of the Provincial Party Committee, and I took on the task of selecting women cadres to participate in the rotation training. Due to the small number of women cadres, it was difficult to complete.In the rotation training class, Comrade Mingfang personally gave a speech to the cadres. He said: "Everything can be done without cadres; even if there are cadres who can't do the work. Now it is different from the underground work that only relies on personal exploration and exercise. Today, the task is heavy. , with a wide range of work and a large number of people, it is necessary to train cadres extensively. With a certain number of high-quality cadres, there is no fear of failing in revolutionary work.” Comrade Mingfang made achievements in training, promoting and using cadres , laid the foundation for carrying out various tasks.

Comrade Mingfang also attaches great importance to the study and improvement of work level of government officials.He has a very serious attitude towards life, and has strict requirements for cadres. He is very specific and in-depth in his work. For example, he personally attends the joint meetings of the trade union, the Communist Youth League, and the Women's Department, and he also speaks and gives instructions. In 1937, our women's department held a women's ministers' meeting in more than a dozen counties. During the meeting, everyone only reported orally, and there was no written report.Comrade Mingfang pointed out at the meeting immediately after discovering this problem: The biggest problem for women cadres is the lack of culture, and learning culture is the main task at present.Everyone had to learn Chinese characters (at that time they all learned Latin), Chinese characters are the foundation of culture.He suggested that if you say a word a day, you will learn the Chinese characters for a sentence.Because I didn’t go to school for a day before joining the revolution, Comrade Mingfang had higher requirements for me to study culture, so he appointed me to go to school immediately, and asked the Minister of Propaganda Wu Jizhi to help me, and the specific task he gave was to let the Minister of Women “go to primary school", learned to write work reports, and instructed me not to go to the countryside for a month, so I studied culture day and night.With the help of Minister Wu, after hard work, I finally learned to read and write.In the summer of 1937, I wrote a few hundred words "Report on Women's Participation in Spring Plowing and Summer Planting in Northern Shaanxi Province", which was also published in the special zone's publications.

Comrade Mingfang is still very concerned about the lives of his comrades despite his busy schedule.For example, Comrade Wang Tao, head of the United Front Work Department of the Provincial Party Committee, is a veteran cadre of the Long March, has a disabled hand, and is not yet married.Someone wanted to introduce a newly promoted lesbian to him, but Comrade Mingfang disagreed.He said that choosing an object should be the same as promoting a cadre, and it should be right.Once, they went to Yan'an Special Zone to attend the party congress. Comrade Mingfang found that Comrade Zhang Zifang was very suitable, so he introduced her to marry Wang Tao.More than ten years later, Comrade Mingfang knew that Wang Tao had died for many years, so he introduced Comrade Li Jiaoru and Zhang Zifang to form a family.Someone joked: "Secretary Ma, you are a big man, and you still care about these small things!" He said with a smile: "This is not a small matter, it is a big event in everyone's life!"

In 1974, when Comrade Mingfang was being held in custody by the Gang of Four and was being treated in Beijing Tongren Hospital due to a serious illness, he asked his daughter Ma Rui, "How is Comrade Deng Xiaoping?" The old comrades in northern Shaanxi also miss the nine sisters in Qingjian.Now, Comrade Mingfang has passed away for 25 years. I can only write down a few things that are deeply in my memory. May Comrade Mingfang rest in peace under Jiuquan.